He Looks Hot wins Champion of Champions berth

CYPRESS, Calif. - He Looks Hot, a 6-year-old gelding who has endured three colic surgeries, won Sunday’s $125,000 Los Alamitos Championship for older Quarter Horses to secure an automatic berth to the $600,000 Champion of Champions at Los Alamitos on Dec. 15.

Ridden by Vinnie Bednar, He Looks Hot ($16.80) won by a head over 10-1 Bodacious Eagle, finishing 440 yards in 21.32 seconds. Tarzanito, a 9-2 chance who won the Go Man Go Handicap on Sept. 2, finished third, beaten a neck.

The race had remarkable depth.

Bodacious Eagle won the All American Gold Cup at Ruidoso Downs last month. Hold Air Hostage, the champion 3-year-old of 2017, finished fifth, one position in front of 8-5 favorite Heza Dasha Fire, the 2015 World Champion, the Quarter Horse equivalent of Horse of the Year. Heza Dasha Fire finished in a dead heat with Royaltys Authority.

Mr Pyc to You, the winner of the 2017 Champion of Champions, and Zoomin for Spuds, the winner of the 2016 Champion of Champions, finished ninth and 10th in the field of 10.

Heza Dasha Fire finished 2 1/4 lengths behind He Looks Hot from an inside post position, and may have been hampered by the draw. The first three finishers broke from posts 10, 9 and 8.

He Looks Hot was third in the first 100 yards, trailing early leader Katies Easy Moves and appeared to take the lead in the final 75 yards.

He Looks Hot races for Los Alamitos chairman Ed Allred and trainer Scott Willoughby. The Los Alamitos Championship was He Looks Hot’s first major stakes win since the 2016 Vessels Maturity. He Looks Hot has won 9 of 27 starts and earned $1,177,019.

He Looks Hot will have his third appearance in the Champion of Champions, a race that plays a major role in year-end voting. He Looks Hot was eighth in 2016 and seventh last year.

Earlier this year, He Looks Hot won a division of the Brad McKinzie Los Alamitos Winter Championship trials, but missed the final because of a bout with colic that required surgery, Willoughby said. He Looks Hot had two colic surgeries as a 3-year-old in 2015.